[bobsing]

I have a new construction home with a new irrigation system. It works fine for my large (1/2 acre) yard, most of which is Bermuda grass. I would like to change some of the grass into flower gardens. P(particularly, I am interested in rounding off some of the corners with triangle flower beds to soften the yard and make mowing easier. Often sprinklers which serve large areas of the lawn are located in corners (for obvious reasons). My question is if I plant flowers and/or low shrubs into these new beds, do I need to move the big sprinkler heads and/or add sprinklers for just the flower beds?

 

[Delmarva Keith]

At the end of the day, Unfortunately yes and yes. The existing sprinkler heads will end up getting deflected by the flowers (and depending on your water pressure and flow rate may demolish the flowers) so they need to be moved. The flowers need water, so you'll need to work something out for the flowers.

Ideally, add another zone for the flowers. If that's completely impractical, it is often possible to match up "close enough" the precipitation rate of popup rotary nozzles with your turf rotor nozzles so they can coexist on the same zone.

 

[bobsing]

Thank you for your reply Delmarva. By "match up "close enough" the precipitation rate of popup rotary nozzles with your turf rotor nozzles so they can coexist on the same zone" do you mean selecting a ground cover that is drought resistant enough and low (to the ground) enough that it can exist with the same precipitation rate as the grass that had been there?

 

[Delmarva Keith]

Thank you for your reply Delmarva. By "match up "close enough" the precipitation rate of popup rotary nozzles with your turf rotor nozzles so they can coexist on the same zone" do you mean selecting a ground cover that is drought resistant enough and low (to the ground) enough that it can exist with the same precipitation rate as the grass that had been there?

Sort of but not exactly. There are going to be a few things going on simultaneously. Take transplanting flowers and shrubs into the beds. They need lots of frequent water. So if they're on the same zone as turf, (and lets say you water your turf 2x per week, 1/2" each irrigation event), you may want to choose nozzles and a layout for,the bed popups that puts down closer to 3/4 or 1" in the same amount of time the turf rotors put down that 1/2". In other words, you may want the beds get about twice the water as the turf. Depending on what you plant and when, you may have to water 3x per week and split up the total weekly minutes until the plants in the beds establish.

Once the plants in the beds establish, you'll have different types of plants in there with different root depth and supplemental water needs. Mature shrubs need less than groundcovers that need less than flowers, generally. All may need less than turf. Again assuming you're on a 2x per week, 1/2" per event turf schedule, you'd try, to the extent possible, to use nozzles with a precipitation rate a bit less than the turf. That may not be possible so anout same as the turf would have to be close enough.

Basically, start with what your turf rotors presently put on the ground. Let's say 0.75" per hour. So to water turf around the "usual" 1" per week, the turf rotors have to run an hour and twenty minutes total each week. Let's say you want the new beds to get 1.5" per week or even 2" per week to get new plants established. You need 1.5" or 2" in an hour and twenty minutes. So nozzles for the bed popups with a pr around 1.5" or 2" in 80 minutes = a desired pr of about 1.1 or 1.5 at your water pressure.. Depending on your water pressure you could choose a higher pr of about 1.5 or lower at around 0.7 (you'd have to place the bed popups in a triangle pattern to get 0.7 depending on your water pressure). Depending on what you choose, you'd need to either overwater the turf a bit or overwater the beds a bit. At the end of the day, the plants will survive and it's close enough if you can live with wasting the water. Similar analysis for after the plants in the beds establish..

 

[bobsing]

Thank you for your thorough response. I thought that I sent a reply last night. But it is not showing up this morning. So, I will compose a new one.
1. Should I call you Keith or Delmarva?
2. I think I can simplify the task to solve with 3 assumptions.
a. First, assume that we have very good water pressure. Although I have not measured it, it seems quite strong throughout the house.
b. Second, let's assume that we will add enough water (through manual sprinkling) to establish the plants in the new beds. That way we are dealing with established plants and the needs from the sprinkler system are not changing so much.
c. Third, assume that we will choose the kind of plants to put into the bed that will best match the needs of the turf.
3. I think that I understand most of what you said above. Pardon my ignorance. From what you said, it seems that we can add 1 or more popup nozzles into the zone that previously had only rotor sprinklers for the turf. Am I understanding you correctly?

 

[Delmarva Keith]

Yes, move the rotors and add popups to cover the beds. This assumes you have the water volume and pressure to add to the existing zone. You will have to arrange the popups in either a square pattern, with head to head coverage, or a triangular pattern with head to head coverage. A simple example square pattern - lets say the bed is rectangular, 10' x 10'. Put a popup in each corner with a 10' radius, 90 degree arc (the corners get a little less water but there's no overspray). You can also Increase the radius to 14' to cover head to head, corner to corner (even coverage but a lot of overshoot at the corners). Lots of other ways to lay it out but for a planting bed, I wouldn't make a career out of it.

Here's a chart for precipitation rates of the RB RVAN nozzles.
http://rvanrotarynozzles.rainbird.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/R-VAN-Product-Family-Tech-Spec-5-D41159-01-30-18.pdf
They are going to pretty close to most rotors fed by residential water supply.

Here's a chart for the Hunter MP Rotators. Less water, may match up better depending on your turf zone and will use less water volume for each nozzle.
https://www.hunterindustries.com/irrigation-product/mp-rotator/mp-rotator (Click on the specs tab).